[BF] Cranberries.
It is noon. From his path in the skies
the red sun looks down on _Kathaga_.
Asleep in the valley it lies,
for the swift hunters follow the bison.
Ta-te-psin, the aged brave, bends
as he walks by the side of Winona;
Her arm to his left hand she lends,
and he feels with his staff for the pathway;
On his slow, feeble footsteps attends
his gray dog, the watchful Wichaka; [a]
For blind in his years is the chief
of a fever that followed the Summer,
And the days of Ta-te-psin are brief.
Once more by the dark-rolling river
Sits the Chief in the warm, dreamy haze
of the beautiful Summer in Autumn;
And the faithful dog lovingly lays his head
at the feet of his master.
On a dead, withered branch sits a crow,
down-peering askance at the old man;
On the marge of the river below
romp the nut-brown and merry-voiced children,
And the dark waters silently flow,
broad and deep, to the plunge of the Ha-ha.
[a] Wee-chah kah--literally "Faithful".
By his side sat Winona.
He laid his thin, shriveled hand on her tresses,
"Winona my daughter," he said,
"no longer thy father beholds thee;
But he feels the long locks of thy hair,
and the days that are gone are remembered,
When Sisoka [BG] sat faithful and fair
in the lodge of swift footed Ta-te-psin.
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